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Dolly Parton’s $450 million legacy has become the center of a bitter family divide as the legal battle over her sprawling estate intensifies.
An insider exclusively told Page Six that several of Parton’s family members are not on the side of her nephew and former head of security, Bryan Seaver, who has been accused of sending threats to the late musician’s employees.
“Things with Bryan seem to be bad in the family,” our insider said, noting that “publicly, most are defending him, but not all.”
Our informant voiced their own distrust of Seaver, calling him a “fraud” and claiming Parton herself began to wonder whether he was overstepping his authority after handling her security for decades.
“[Dolly] eventually realized he was becoming too powerful and that maybe his intentions weren’t great, but she didn’t know how to approach that,” our source claimed, emphasizing that the beloved country singer “wasn’t a confrontational person.”
Despite Seaver’s alleged standing among certain Parton relatives, our insider believes they are unlikely to publicly criticize him for fear of tarnishing her reputation.
“The family is generally quiet about internal matters. Part of it is probably to protect Dolly and preserve the family name,” our informant explained.
However, the source pointed to a recent Instagram comment made by Parton’s niece Danielle Parton — who was just announced as Dolly’s estate’s official brand ambassador — in which she suggested there’s bad blood with Seaver.
In response to a video posted by Danielle titled “crazy dad story,” a user commented, “I guess we see where Bryan Severs [sic] gets it from now,” to which she replied, “If we’re gonna be friends, you will not be comparing Bryan Seaver to my daddy.”
Seaver claimed earlier this week that he and his children were barred from attending Wednesday’s CMA tribute show in honor of his aunt, though he did not specify whether any family members were involved in the decision.
“What a beautiful tribute. I was not invited. Nor was my daughter, Dolly’s songwriting guitar playing, claw hammer finger pickin progeny,” he posted on Facebook Thursday.
“The rest of my entire family was invited. A few attended. My kids and I were told not to attend. Such is life…”
Seaver and Danielle did immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
In September, Danny Nozell — Dolly’s longtime manager who runs She’s Alive, LLC, the company that manages her business interests and professional property — filed a lawsuit and requested a restraining order against Seaver shortly after firing him as head of her security.
In the filing, Nozell claimed Seaver invoked “his self-proclaimed military-contractor experience, access to weapons and capacity for violence” to demand money and that he began threatening him weeks before Dolly’s Aug. 25th death.
The company’s employees also stopped going into the office due to fear over Seaver’s alleged text messages, Nozell claimed.
Some of the texts Seaver allegedly sent, according to screenshots featured in the filing, included threats he was going to “ratf–k every [Dollywood business partner] entity [he] can possibly conjure.”
In another message, Seaver allegedly wrote, “Her money better be bigger than I can make elsewhere or I’m going to f–k everyone. I am about to become the hand of retribution for my entire family.”
Nozell argued that Seaver’s alleged texts were a “direct threat to sabotage a core business relationship and to use public exposure as a weapon against SAL and its partners.”
Additionally, Page Six exclusively reported that Seaver allegedly “menaced and intimidated” staffers at Dolly’s SongTeller Hotel and Life of Many Colors Museum. He also allegedly unleashed on one specific employee in an expletive-filled email, calling them a “f–king s–tbag loser” while threatening that his lawyers would “start f–king you up the ass.”
However, a source previously told us that Nozell — who worked with Dolly for more than 20 years — may have ulterior motives for going after Seaver in court.
“He wants the family out of the picture and wants to turn her house into Graceland,” that source claimed at the time, adding that the Grammy winner was the moral compass of her businesses — and “Danny doesn’t have the heart that Dolly did.”
Seaver, for his part, has slammed Nozell for dragging him into a legal battle while he and his loved ones are in active mourning.
“While the family was grieving, the business manager went to court and the media with a surprising and incomplete story,” his attorneys told Page Six earlier this month.
“Seeing text messages that are misleading and taken out of context has been very hurtful to our client and his family.”
Notably, Seaver was the person to announce Dolly’s death at age 80 following a secret and brief battle with cancer.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 3.